Abstract

In August 1908, Wilbur Wright gave the first public demonstration of the Wright
airplane, at Le Mans, France. Two weeks later Orville was the first to fly publicly a powered
man-carrying aircraft in the United States, at Fort Myer, Virginia. Those astonishing
flights were the beginnings of the Wrights' programs to fulfill the requirements of contracts
the Brothers had made with the French and U.S. governments. At the time nobody else
had a practical aircraft fully controllable and capable of being maneuvered at the pilot's
command.